In one Polish cave, the oldest piece of jewelry in Europe and Asia, more than 40,000 years old, was found in a pendant made in a mammoth factory.

The oval pendant, 4.5 cm long and 1.5 cm wide, shows two large holes, probably more than 50 small, point-like holes in the asymmetrical loop line for suspension.

“This is a wonderful antique craft from Homo sapiens, an amazing piece of jewelry,” said Sarah Talamo, who led research at the University of Bologna from Staznia Cave in southern Poland.

Using a new radiocarbon test method, researchers have found that the addiction is 41,500 years old, the oldest in Eurasia, 2,000 years before similar finds in France and Germany, decorated with point-drilled holes.

Published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports Research According to the findings, the territory of present-day Poland was an important area of ​​artistic innovation in Europe, where modern people invented new types of ornaments to indicate their personal or cultural identity.

In the opinion of researchers

It is not known what the drawing on the mammoth bone was.

A similar shape found in a carved bone about 30,000 years old in Blanchard, France, could have been used to estimate the number of wildlife killed or to indicate the movement of the moon.

Excavations at the Stagnia Cave have revealed that modern man appeared in Poland 10,000 years earlier than previously thought. “Until now, when mammoth jewelry was made, we knew there was no modern man in the area,” Sarah Talamo said.

Opening image: Source: eurekalert.org